July 23-24, 2025

It was nice to have a reasonable start to our travel day to begin our trip! Our friend picked us up at 8:00 a.m. to take us to the Phoenix airport. 

Upon arriving, we learned our flight to Minneapolis was delayed for one hour.  We purposely had a five hour layover to avoid flight delay concerns so it was no problem for us. Unfortunately, not so for others.

The pre-flight safety video highlighted Delta as the first airline to 100 years old.   Segments were presented by people in period outfits by decade.

We made it to Minneapolis and had dinner and wait time in the Delta lounge.

Our next flight was Minneapolis to Amsterdam.   The gate attendants used facial recognition during the boarding process. That was new to us.  It worked well but made boarding slower than usual.

The 7:33 minute flight was uneventful. We slept for a few hours. 

Welcome to the Netherlands, the land of bicycles!

We had an hour Uber ride to our hotel in Rotterdam.

Usually I am happy to take recommendations from our travel agent regarding hotels, but this time I told her where we wanted us to stay. 

The Hotel New York is located in the 1901 headquarters of the Holland-America Line.

Unfortunately, the employee who gives the guided tours was on vacation so I got what I could from hotel placards and the website.  I will intersperse the timeline with pictures from around the hotel.

The initial business was Nederlandsch Amerikaanse Stoomvaart Maatschappij.  It was renamed Holland America Line in 1896.

A warehouse was added at the back of the headquarters in 1908.

In 1913 the office was expanded with a 38 meter high tower.  A second tower was added in 1917.  

There is a clock on one tower and weather vane on the other.

A scale model within the hotel shows Holland America’s SS Nieuw Amsterdam, built in 1938, as a luxury liner.  It was painted gray and stripped down to be a troop shift during World War II. Because of its speed and strength, it sailed without convoy between the United States and Great Britain.

After the war, Nieuw Amsterdam returned in glory to Rotterdam.  She was re-appointed inside and outside. In 1947, she returned to passenger service. It sailed its last voyage from Rotterdam to New York in 1971.  The SS Nieuw Amsterdam was scrapped in 1973.  That seems an unfortunate end for such a historic ship.

In 1971, with increasing competition from aviation for general transportation, the Holland-America Line (HAL) decides to focus on the American cruise ship industry.  Corporate headquarters moved to Seattle in 1977.

The former headquarters building in Rotterdam was sold in 1984. By 1988, it was occupied by squatters.  That same year, the city of Rotterdam purchased the building.

In 1981, hospitality developers began transforming the property into the current hotel and restaurant, officially opening in 1993.

These are of our room.

These are from the lobby and common areas.

From the hotel’s website:; 

Despite numerous improvements, the building still reflects its rich history, shaped in part by the hopes and dreams of thousands of migrants who embarked on a new adventure from here: a life in the land of opportunity: America!

This picture has the old hotel with modern buildings around it and also a door in the foreground.  There is no explanation about the door nearby, but may be symbolic of emigrants from Europe opening a door to a new life in the Americas.

The park around the hotel and pier is quite nice with green space and artistic features.

The hotel is very close to the pier as evidenced by this picture – probably not more than 100 yards.

The AIDAperla was in port and quick research revealed two interesting facts.  First, this ship was built by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki,Japan.  Most ships we are aware of seem to be built in Italy.  Second, a crew member from the AIDAperla went missing and was presumed overboard in 2023.  A nine hour search failed to locate the crew member and was called off.

We had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant, got instructions for the train to Amsterdam for the next day, and called it an early night.

Next Up: We make it to the Anne Frank House.